LA Times

What was I doing this long? No posts, no blab blabs and no sign of survival for almost the WHOLE year. First year of the new spell in my life was really a fast one. It has always made me preoccupied with loads of new activities which I have never done in my past. There were lots of adventures, travelling, newer ventures, relationship building, learning, experiments, finally - first step into parenthood(most exciting portion).... In one word, I call it "Experience". Here in this space I am going to spill few words on that so called "Experience" to resurrect my dormant blog.


Travelling and Adventures:
Once, when I set my foot on the land where my man has been living for the past 6 years I wasn't that comfortable as him. I missed my homeland and all my lovely people with whom I spent my past 24 years of life. My first 3 months in US was the most fastest part of my life. I felt like we were boarded on a rapid roller coaster ride. I have already wrote about this part in my previous blog here. Then we took a break to settle properly in a place for some reasonable span of time. We are now at LA. However, we did some local travelling and few long weekend trips to certain places within California state. Local travelling list includes Malibu Venkateshwara temple, Malibu beach, Santa Monica Beach and Pier, Balboa lake, Universal studios, Hollywood place, Kodak theatre, 'n' no. of malls, AMC movies(Dark knight rises, Avengers, Skyfall)... Long weekend trips to Lake Tahoe and Zion National park along with friends circle was nice and a different experience. However, the trip to Idyllwild-Pine cove will stay as an evergreen memory in our Pensieve*. I call it to be the most romantic getaway together so far. We were been to a Colorful-Fall-Place called Idyllwild for our first anniversary. Wooden cabin house, maple trees with Fall leaves, walking down a trail(holding hands), picnic lunch in the lake and woods, clear night sky with millions of shining star, chill winter breeze, warmth of the firewood, special anniversary gift(Lovely locket) made the special day much more specialer.


Newer venture in kitchen:
" Anybody can cook " - says chef le Gustuea in the movie "Ratatouille"
The proof for the above statement is what I am doing as a part of my day-to-day routine. But a good cooking is an art which requires some amount of precision to stimulate the fourth sense by maintaining the right balance of the all 6 different tastes. However, it needs some groundwork to be done before attaining "The pakka Chef" status. I am still working on this and it might take a major part of my life time to attain this status. Though there are no regrets yet, since my man never complains much on my cooking. Lucky me :)


Relationship building:
It wasn't that much pain for us to build a stronger basement for our relationship. It doesn't require both to hold many common aspects/interests for making a perfect couple. We do have many differences. From my experience, the secret for making an ideal bond lies on understanding those differences and adding some amount of Tolerance/Adjustability in those situations. At times I do slip down in such contexts and endup in conflicts. However, whenever a conflict rises we don't let it last longer. Simple words like "sorry, I won't repeat it again" resolves the problem instantaneously. We know that no one is completely perfect in this world. Mistakes may happen. It is highly important how we act in such situations. Whenever a person is in such trouble, they used to freak out or at times turn hypomanic. In this case the other person has be calm and supportive, so that situation does not turn worser. My man does this role perfectly. I really love it. The perfect example for this situation is what happen to us this Diwali eve - I call this part of the story as "Diwali in Trash Bin". I lost our engagement ring. I was totally shattered down and madly wanted it(sentimental ring) back. His soothing words, efforts(searching for it in all places including the "Trash Bin") made me feel such an unconditional love that he has for me. A week later found my ring lying on my closet along with clothes. Felt like, I got my life back and no one can take us apart.  


First step into parenthood:
Makes me blush. Searching for a good word to start. Yes, got it. "DIVINE".
Felt a "DIVINE" feeling when we first saw our little one under the ultrasound scan. We are know experiencing the most exciting episode of our life. Carrying a baby gives a wonderful feeling which words can't express. Though there are few difficulties like morning sickness, restriction in doing few activities, growing belly-getting disfigured and unable to wear old dresses, I overcome such barricade when I feel the fluttering movements, kicks and nudges that my baby makes from inside. The best movie which we saw this season is the ultrasound video of our baby and the best tune which we heard this season is our baby's heart beat. Eagerly counting down the days for the stork to deliver our baby at our doorsteps. :)


P.S
Pensieve* - (Object to review old memories used by Albus Dumblebore)
Summa oru Harry Potter touch ku :P

LA-Vegas-NJ within a week

Finally, the pendulum comes to the equilibrium position(rest) after swinging back and forth from the west coast to the east coast. Before my next oscillation cycle starts I thought I should imprint few words about the complete left and right swing of my previous oscillation cycle.

I have heard from people around me that it would take atleast a week to tune back the body clock to the new time zone. But, I was just given 1 1/2 days time to recover myself from the so called jet-lag syndrome after a 24 hrs of tiresome travel. Even this 1 1/2 days time was not a complete one. I had to get a mobile connection(Actually, I wanted to brag a little about my new Iphone), few more accessories to travel (like jacket, gloves...) I was taken to few shopping spots at Los Angeles. We also visited a famous mall(could not recollect the name) where the whole place was dipped in Christmas spirit. I was quite loony at that time(home sick & tired). So, I didn't pay much attention in things around me. With this mind state we were all set to Las Vegas. During the drive all I had in my mind was "why we need to travel till LV now? why this hurry??". Slowly I had to let loose all my hidden knots in the mind and tune myself in order to enjoy the new place. We had 2 crazy days at LV. All that we did was just walk, walk and walk around all the casinos that were lined up both the sides of the lane. Trust me, I am still puzzled from where I have build that much stamina. (Maybe many rounds of kalyana virundhu help me do that) However 2 days ended up so soon with both - fortune(poker) and failure(secret). Once we were back to LA it was again a packing-up phase. Yep, immediately we had to start to New Jersey in another 2 days. Amidst, we had to meet all his friends at dinner before leaving LA.

Its was a different phase of life at NJ. To be frank, we were hibernating 3 months at the east coast as it was totally dry, cold and dumb struck. First weekend at east coast still stays as an apple of eye. We were at the breathtaking Niagara falls. One would stay wordless atleast for a minute while standing near the Niagara falls. However the Mist of Maid ferry ride disappointed us due to the bad weather.

The best part in this 3 months time was that we had 3 long weekends which we tried using more judiciously so that we could cover as many places as possible. We spent our Christmas weekend at the busiest city - NYC. Rockefeller towers spectacular Christmas tree, building light show, Ice skating on Christmas eve occupies a huge part of my evergreen memories. Apart from that we also enjoyed Empire State, walking down the wall street, Brooklyn Bridge, Central park(Frozen lake), Time square, Statue of Liberty, cruising along the Manhattan skyline, Madame Tussauds, American Museum of natural History(Special mentions to the Space show), travelling in metro(with uptown/downtown confusions) and last but not least Salt and pepper restaurant. New year weekend brought us a pleasant feeling by filling our minds with a cup of inner peace. Yep, we were at Bridgewater Sri Venkateswara Temple. This place is like Tirupathi in India. Other weekends we used to hangout sometime at Malls, theaters, Indian stores nearby. We saw a couple of movies while we were at NJ. Sherlock Holmes is the first movie that we saw together at the US.(He planned this long back) Movie experience at "AMC dine in theater" will definitely need another blog. After this we saw MI4(cruising Tom at IMAX bigger screen), Vettai(Pongal movie), The girl with the dragon tattoo(No words :'( ). Finally, we got a opportunity to see fresh winter snow too. Good or bad snow devastated our Washington plans. Its high time, we got the final call from LA and headed back to the place where I landed initially.

P.S

Whats now?

"LA Times" episodes will be continuing...

9000 miles journey

Final call day. Passport, visa, air ticket, online check-in, boarding pass, 1 hand luggage, 2 check-in luggages - all checked. My send-off scene had around 2 dozen of my beloved people standing behind the grills with mixed feelings. I had to control all my emotional channels so that there was no cloud-burst time around the airport area before I board my air vessel. However, I succeeded in doing it. Really a strange thing to happen(people who has personally learnt me will know the hidden catch here) Anyway, my strategy created a win-win situation. My beloved people (except the BIG one)* who were there for me left home with an happy note. Then, I turned around and took my first confident step towards the immigration and security check with my heart beat saying that "from now on, you are on your own". It was the first time in my life, I felt a kind of loneliness and loads of void spaces even though I was surrounded by 1000s of unknown busy strangers @ the airport. I had two breaks in my 24 hours loooong and tiresome journey. One at Singapore and another at Japan. Those breaks were good enough for me to do few stretching and sight seeing around the aisles of the airport. The two things that amazed me at the Singapore airport are the butterfly park and the air-walk train. Finally, heard the landing announcement from the captain of the craft. This moment was the one that, I was carving for, to join back my man after 2 weeks time.

I leave the next scene at LA airport unwritten here.

Reason:

* The BIG bro failed capturing my Sweepy gesture in his camera. ;) #Flop #Fail

Anju

The adventures of Tin Tin

Something is very special about Tin Tin movie. It was planned long back by the three musketeers to watch the movie in big screen. However one of the musketeer missed Tin Tin by a whisker. It was a perfect day with good start early in the morning when we started to sathyam cinemas. It was just 1 day left in the countdown clock of my first time-all-alone-9000 miles journey. Its hard to pack all the things that I need. Because my need is the WHOLE CHENNAI, which is impossible.

I don't want to deviate from the current topic, so let me continue with Tin Tin Tale. As usual its an adventurous plot where Tin Tin's crew were rattling and tattling to uncover the secret of unicorn, the treasure ship. However, the movie was not a spine chiller one and the suspense ingredient was less than what I expected.

The storyline was crystal clear with no hidden knots in it. "This movie is a Indiana Jones movie for Kids" says Steven Spielberg. I wish to make a slight change to his statement - "This movie is an animated version of Indiana Jones where the characters are alone replaced", hence its not just a movie meant for kids alone. The movie beings in a market place where Tin Tin is attracted towards The Unicorn Ship's model. Once he becomes the rightful owner of the ship he is stopped by two other people who are also interested in owning the same ship. But this suspense essence behind this Unicorn didn't last for a long time. The ship had a secret scroll in it which when opened with two other similar scroll will be the map to a 17th century treasure. Soon before Tin Tin learns that one of other two scroll is already with Sakharine, he is been kidnapped by Sakharine's men and dropped in his ship. Snowy plays a key role in rescuing Tin Tin from the mob. While they escape from the ship Captain Haddock joins the team. This flight scene won many claps and whistles from the audience. The hallucination scene in the desert was also depicted well. Tin Tin cracks the puzzle step by step with the help of Captain Haddock who is the grand son of Sir Francis Haddock, Commander of the Giant sea vessel, The Unicorn. Now the trio marches towards the third scroll. Once Tin Tin succeeds in getting all the scroll there is breath taking final chase scene something like Tom and Jerry strip. Finally the movie ends up with the expected climax where the trio lands over the treasure place. In between Thompson and Thompson invaded the screen with their witty portion. Overall, I will give 8 of 10 for the movie.

"I am not sure when again I will be at Satyam Cinemas along with my whole bunch of beloved people." With this frozen thoughts I sailed my ship back home.

Anju

Deadly Hallow Hunt Again

In continuation to my previous blog posts here and here, let me write about my hallow hunt experience at US Consulate, Anna Salai. The VISA initiation was done through the corporate company where my man is working. It was just my duty to be there 15 minutes prior to my appointment time, attend my interview, get my Gate-pass stamped, fly my 9000 miles Final Destination journey and start my new life.

This time the lucky charm was totally diffused in each and every cells of my body. My appointment was on 4th Nov at 11:45 A.M and I had to be there at least by 11:30 A.M. The first right move for the hunt day was my dad's idea of booking a cab to reach my interview location and the next appropriate move was my plan of travelling along with my cool Big Brother. Both the combo worked on well though there were few fiasco like heavy rainfall, traffic over kathipara, hectic 2hrs journey to reach Mt Road from my place.

Looking like a totally drenched chicken, I entered the Consulate sharp on the gun time, en-queued myself in the security-check queue(not a big Q, just 2 ppl were before me). Its a kind of tight security check where they scan us head to toe electronically and manually. You are not allowed to carry any electronic gadgets inside the Consulate. Once I was done with the security check, I was given with a token number. Then, I was taken inside to a counter were my HDFC receipt and other Docs were verified, after which my finger prints were all scanned by a bio-metric recorder. I was then made to wait in a hall were the interview procedure was taking place. Each and every petitioner were called in accordance to their token number. I was just staring at the board were the token numbers were displayed. It didn't took more than 5 mins time for my token number to take a position on that board. The interviewer greeted me with "Good Morning" and a broad smile. I too greeted him back and gave my Docs folder to him. As mine is an H4 petition it didn't have any freaky questions. It was all direct obvious ones. One should see to it that your interviewer is convinced with 2 important pointers:

1. You are the real dependent of primary applicant or ur spouse. (It needs few supportive documents like marriage certificate, wedding photographs, photocopies of spouse's documents-Passport, Visa, Client letter, work permit, payslip, bank account statements, Tax forms etc)

2. You don't have any plans in permanently settling down at the US.

It didn't took more than 5 mins for me to get the desired two words "Visa Approved". I walked out of the Consulate in search of a telephone booth, called my lucky baby and drove back home celebrating the Hallow victory with everyone through phone.

So whats next? Its my 9000 miles journey. Stay tuned.

Anju